The week in Mexico

Calderón in Tijuana: President Felipe Calderón said during a visit to Tijuana on Thursday that there will be no negotiating with drug traffickers. Mayor Jorge Ramos asked that the military presence in Tijuana be made permanent until tranquillity returns to the city.

Luken candidacy: Calderón's National Action Party named Tijuana businessman Gastón Luken Garza as the party's congressional candidate for Baja California's fifth electoral district. The nomination displeased some because Luken's candidacy for the July 5 election was imposed from on high. Luken said he was nonpartisan when he served as Mexico City's comptroller in the mayoral administration of Democratic Revolution Party founder Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. Luken also was a citizens' representative to state and federal electoral institutions.

Cabinet minister resigns: Luis Tellez, the Transportation and Communications minister, resigned after it was disclosed that he had made impolitic remarks in secretly recorded conversations. Social Security Institute director Juan Molinar succeeded Tellez.

Genetically modified corn: Mexico is changing its laws to allow the planting of genetically modified corn for experimental reasons.

Airport security: More than 800 police were assigned to Mexico City's international airport after a series of armed robberies against travelers who exchanged money there.

VW furloughs: Volkswagen's plant in Puebla, where the new Beetles are made, halted operations for two weeks.